-• •••,- -
70 Friday, June 1, 1984
I -4 "
BORUCH
BERNBAUM
SOLOMON
(SAM)
MOSCOW
Announces the un-
veiling of a monument
in his memory at 12
noon Sunday, June 3, at
Machpelah Cemetery.
Rabbi Schnipper will
officiate. Relatives and
friends are asked to
attend.
The Family
of the Late
The Family
of the Late
LOUIS and
GERTRUDE
NOWEND
BELLA
LULKIN
Announces the un-
veiling of a monument
in her memory at 10:30
a.m. Sunday, June 10, at
Hebrew Memorial
Park. Rabbi Arm will
officiate. Relatives and
friends are asked to
aftend,
Announces the un-
veiling of monuments in
their memory 9 a.m.
Sunday, June 3, at He-
brew Memorial Park.
Cantor Orbach will of-
ficiate. Relatives and
friends are asked to
attend.
The Family
of the Late
DR. BENJAMIN BRAND
ti
HOLY DAYS
The Family
of the Late
Announces the un-
veiling of a monument
in his memory at 11 a.m.
Sunday, June 10, at He-
brew Memorial Park,
Radomer Section.
Rabbi Bergstein will of-
ficiate. Relatives and
friends are asked to
attend.
Wishes to thank all our dear friends and rela-
tives for their kind thoughts and assistance
during our time of bereavement.
IN MEMORIAM
In Loving
Memory of
In loving memory
LAWRENCE
RAYMOND
ADELL
RONALD P.
ROSENBERG
Nov. 1, 1957-
June 1, 1974
Who will always be in
our hearts.
The Adell Family
You are sadly missed,
forever loved and never
forgotten. Your family:
Dee Dee' and Steve,
Mark, Gary and Darren.
ME=1111111111M111=111MMI
Shavuot: unfinished holiday
BY RABBI IRVING GREENBERG
Special to The Jewish News
In many ways, Shavuot is
the least developed of the
three major holidays of
Judaism. Shavuot was one
of the three Biblical holi-
days on which Jews went up
to Jerusalem. Yet it was
only one day long; the other
two holidays, Passover and
Sukkot, ran for seven days.
Rosh Hashanah has the
shofar and the New Year
rituals; Yom Kippur, fast-
ing and atonement rituals.
By contrast, Shavuot has
developed no distinctive
food or symbol. (There is a
late minor custom to eat
dairy meals.) This liturgical
poverty is ironic since
Shavuot is the holiday
celebrating the giving of the'
entire Torah.
Yet if Shavuot is the least
developed holiday, it can be
said to be the most develop-
ing. Of all the major tradi-
tional holidays, it has
spawned major new fea-
tures most recently in his-
torical terms. Like the idea
of covenant which it celeb-
rates, it is open to history. It
is pot too much to suggest
that in our time, with a re-
newal of the covenant
under way, Shavuot, toot
will be renewed.
In
Biblical
times,
Shavuot was called the Fes-
tival of the Harvest (Exodus
23:16). The name Shavuot
The Family
of the Late
LEON J.
RIVES
Announces the un-
veiling of a monument
in his memory 11 a.m.
a Sunday, June 3, at
Clover Hill Park
Cemetery.
Rabbi
Schnipper will officiate.
Relatives and friends
are asked to attend.
In blessed and beloved memory of our
dearly departed
The Family
of the Late
LOUIS MARGOLIS
BETTY
ROSS
Who passed away May 30, 1962. Sadly
missed and forever in our hearts.
His loving children, grandchildren and
great-grandchildren
Announces the un-
veiling of a monument
in her memory at 12:30
p.m. Sunday, June 10, at
Machpelah Cemetery.
Cantor Vieder will of-
ficiate. Relatives and
friends are asked to
attend.
In Loving Memory Of
The Family
of the Late
DR. KARL STILLWATER,
PAULINE
STRICOF
Pediatrician
Who died on May 30, 1981. He will al-
ways be in our hearts and minds as he is
missed by his wife, children,
grandchildren, friends and relatives, col-
leagues and patients.
rAVytt,fit!...ti
■721 .4 .,..■ t'b otilr #,
AAt t
r ...,
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
The Family
of the Late
e'l
• W - yeldsAvrkagr-
do-A.- 1- taUilvit4Navikivo,rsvetwvavielvv-A
,
a*vitl..:t.. 1 ")!Lfaa t( , '
" " •
Announces the un-
veiling of a monument
in her memory 11 a.m.
Sunday, June 10, at
Clover Hill Park
Cemetery. Rabbi Stan-
ley Rosenbaum will of-
ficiate. Relatives and
friends are asked to
attend.
•
means weeks; it was called
the Holiday of Weeks be-
cause it came seven weeks
after the Exodus day, the
first day of Passover.
On the second day of
Passover, the ritual of offer-
ing the Omer — a measure
of barley, the earliest of the
new cereal crops — was per-
formed. The Omer was
brought daily until Shavuot
when the wheat finally
ripened. The beginning of
the wheat harvest was
marked by the offering in
the sanctuary of lechem
ha-bikkurim (the first fruit
bread) on Shavuot (see
Leviticus 23:16-20). The
bread baked from the new
crop of wheat was saved
and offered in the
sanctuary, thus expressing
gratitude for the crop.
the Book of Ruth which oc-
curs in the harvest season
(Ruth 1:22). They also iden-
tified Shavuot as the day on
which the fruit trees are
judged (just as human fate
is set on Rosh Hashanah/
Yom Kippur). In later cen-
turies, the custom of spread-
ing grass in synagogue and
home also expressed the ag-
ricultural orientation.
In medieval times, the
next great strand of ritual
development was added to
the tradition by the Kab-
balists. They ordained that
people stay awake the first
night of Shavuot and spend
it in the study of Torah.
Maimonides suggested that
in great eagerness to re-
ceive the Torah, the Israel-
ites started counting the
days from the day after
Exodus until the great Re-
velation. To the Kabbalists,
the Counting of the Omer
was reinterpreted as a
countdown for Revelation.
By staying up all night, the
people enacted the over-
whelming excitement of re-
accepting the covenant.
In modern times, Reform
Judaism, in one of its better
religious intuitions, associ-
ated Shavuot with a Con-
firmation ceremony which
tonk young Jews born in the
tradition and confirmed
them as adult Jews. Unfor-
tunately, Confirmation was
often associated with the
dropping of the bar mitzvah
ceremony. This led to tradi-
tional Jews' rejecting Con-
firmation. As Reform has
become more tradi-
tional and recovered bar
mitzvah, observance of Con-
firmation has weakened
somewhat.
At the least, families
should have a covenant
meal at home together on
Shavuot, and tell of the cal-
ling of the Jewish people to
witness to the triumph and
perfection of life. People
should talk of the content of
this covenant; they should
summon up the memories of
generations gone before
who carried their share on
the covenantal journey and
passed the torch on to us.
Even more central was
the bikkurim (first fruit)
ritual. The ripening first
fruits in the field were iden-
The renewal of the cove-
tified, then brought up to
nant is bound to lead to a
Jerusalem with great cere-
recovery and development
mony. "This land flowing
of Shavuot. Through
with milk and honey."
Shavuot, the Jewish people
exemplified in the covenant
will -reaffirm its destiny as
was fused with the celebra-
the People of the Unfinished
tion of life's bounty and
Covenant, the carriers of
God's goodness.
the once and future redemp-
Although the Torah men-
tion.
tions that the people Israel
Copyright 1984, National
Jewish Resource Center.
arrived at Sinai in the third
month (Exodus 19:1) and
the Talmud deduces from
various verses that the Re-
velation was given on the
sixth day of the third month
— i.e., given on Shavuot day
— the Bible does not specifi-
cally identify Shavuot with
that event. In the aftermath Dr. S. Spiegel
of the destruction of the
Temple, the rabbis con-
New York (JTA) — Dr. Academy of the Hebrew
cluded that God was calling Shalom Spiegel, William Language in Jerusalem and
Israel to a more active role Prager Professor Emeritus
fellow of the American
in the covenant. The rabbis of- Medieval Hebrew Litera- a Academy
for Jewish Re-
made Torah study the cen- ture at The Jewish Theolog- search.
tral expression of Jewish ical Seminary of America,
Former chairman of the
religious participation. In died May 24 at age 85.
educational
advisory com-
the process, they turned the
Born in Bocawina, mittee to Hadassah, he was
Torah into a "portable Romania, Dr. Spiegel re- also secretary of the Ale-
homeland" which nurtured ceived his Ph.D. degree
the Jews wherever they from the University of Vie- xander Kohut Memorial
Foundation.
happened to be.
nna. He began his teaching
In 1973, Dr. Spiegel was
The rabbis underscored career in Palestine as lec-
Shavuot as the day of the turer in Hebrew literature. awarded an honorary de-
giving of the Torah. As they Prior to his appointment to gree of doctor of Hebrew let-
developed the synagogue the seminary faculty, Dr. ters from the seminary. In
and its rituals of Torah re- Spiegel was professor and May 1983, he was elected to
ading and study, they librarian at the Jewish In- membership in the Ameri-
fashioned the next major stitute of Religion in New can Academy of Arts and
Sciences.
ritual unfolding of Shavuot. York City.
Applying their great
He was a scholar whose
paradigm of reenactment of notable record includes a Abe Spitzer
the original event, they series of publication in Bi-
New York — Abe Spitzer,
celebrated the Revelation
blical and medieval letters a crewman on the plane that
and the Covenant by retel- and
the books, "Hebrew Re- dropped an atomic bomb on
ling the Sinai story on born"
and "The Last Trial," Nagasaki during World
Shavuot. The passages of
latter a collection of War II, died May 25 at age
the Sinai encampment and the
legends about the sacrifice 72.
the Ten Commaildments of Isaac. He also published
After the war, he co-
were read aloud with spe-
cial melody; the congrega- studies on Hosea, Amos, authored a book, ,"We Drop-
Ezekiel and Job. ped the Bomb." He resided
tion symbolically stood Jeremiah,
Dr. Spiegel was a member in White Plains, N.Y.
again at Sinai and reac- of the Society of Biblical
Mr. Spitzer is survived by
cepted the Torah.
Literature and of the Orien- his wife, Este; a son,
The rabbis did not want to
tat Society. He was also a Ric'hard of Troy; a daughter,
break the connection to the trustee
of the Israel Matz Joan Hinterbichler of Al-
land of Israel. So they or-
an honorary buquerctue, N.M.; and four
dained a Shavuot reading of Foundation,
member of the Israel grandchildren.
"
+ }
1
+tett
i't 113113:1:4T
tq'Ffec-frkYtive-e-
OBITUARIES